Julianne Hough of "Dancing with the Stars" plays the preacher's daughter in an upcoming "Footloose" remake, but critics are not dancing for joy just yet. YouTube

June 22, 2011

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The video: The trailer for the remake of the '80s classic Footloose has arrived, but does it fill the original's "Sunday shoes?" (Watch the clip below.) Back in 1984, Footloose made a star out of Kevin Bacon and spawned an "iconic," chart-topping soundtrack. Bacon played Ren, a city kid who moves to a small town where dancing has been cruelly outlawed. He falls in love with the daughter of the preacher who instituted the ban, and, together, the two rally for the right to cut a rug. The remake has been in the works since 2008, when teen heartthrob Zac Efron was set to inherit Bacon's extra-tight white T-shirt. After he dropped out, Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford briefly signed on. Now, newcomer Kenny Wormald is playing Ren, with Dennis Quaid as the stiff preacher, and Dancing with the Stars' Julianne Hough as his daughter. As the Chicago Tribune's Tierney Bricker points out, there are plenty of homages to the original film in the trailer, including "Ren's yellow Volkswagen and red tuxedo." But with all the copy-catting, some say the new film is "completely unnecessary."

The reaction: I'm not dancing for joy, says Jen Chaney at The Washington Post. "Count the ways you miss Kevin Bacon" after watching this trailer. Indeed, the new Footloose "will ruin your childhood when it hits theaters in October," says Matt Cherette at Gawker. Fans of the original film will "completely hate the new one." Not so fast, says Aiden Redmond at Moviefone. Judging from the surprising casting and stellar dancing, it looks like the remake "is doing an interesting job of updating this thing for a new generation." Judge for yourself: